Disposable surgical masks for hospital use are commonly fabricated from inexpensive paper or fabric to enable disposal after use. Surgical masks generally include a flat, rectangular panel which covers the face of the wearer, with four ties or strings attached by stitching or heat sealings to the corners of the rectangular panel. The masks are generally sold and stored in groups, and are removed one by one for use.
Heretofore, surgical mask dispensers have allowed dispensing only at a relatively high cost. In order to keep the mask ties from becoming entangled during storage and dispensing, the ties of each mask were required to be individually folded over the rectangular portion before stacking the folded masks in a dispensing box. Such folding is generally required to be done by hand, thereby incurring added manufacturing costs. Were the masks not individually folded, the removal of one mask could result in the inadvertent removal of several masks due to their entangled tie straps. As a result, many masks were either wasted or contaminated.
Hospitals are currently faced with the need to reduce costs and with the need to increase sanitary conditions. A need has thus arisen for a surgical mask storage container and dispenser which eliminates the requirement to individually fold each mask and associated strings, but still allows tangle-free removal of the masks from the dispenser.